


A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion

by cordeliadelayne



Series: DCI Tom Ryan [2]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Background Relationships, Drama, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Team as Family, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25791208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Helen Cutter's death a month ago casts a long shadow over the residents of James Lester's country home and with questions still unanswered about the strange lights in the grounds DCI Tom Ryan and DS Stephen Hart once more find themselves back at the scene of the crime.
Series: DCI Tom Ryan [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871158
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Albert Einstein - “People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”. Sequel to [The Strange Case of the Disappearing Explorer.](https://cordeliadelayne.livejournal.com/986829.html)

Previously on...

Helen Cutter was found dead in the garden of Sir James Lester's country home having fallen through a mysterious light in the sky.

**Four weeks later**

Sir James Lester sat at his desk, his fingers curled in disdain around the newspaper his assistant Jenny Lewis had insisted he looked at before he could sit down to his lunch. It was almost a month since Helen Cutter's body had been found on his property and even though the official cause of death had been determined to be blood poisoning there was still no let up in the press' spurious insinuations.

The last missive was in regards to Lester's ex-wife who, despite now residing in Switzerland, somehow retained enough influence in society circles to speculate on the nature of his relationship not only with Helen Cutter but also it seemed his assistant Jenny, the head of his private zoo Abigail Maitland and his ward Jess Parker.

He threw the paper down on his desk in disgust. He was of a mind to sue but both Jenny and his solicitor thought that would only pour oil on the fire.

“The fact that you have always supported women in your employ does you a great deal of credit,” Jenny said.

Lester shrugged. His mother had been a great force for good and both his sisters were vocal campaigners for women's suffrage, it seemed perfectly natural that he should support all the women who came under his sphere of influence if he could.

“All I care about is the job getting done by the best person.”

“Exactly,” Jenny said, removing the paper.

Lester harrumphed, which Jenny had long ago deduced was his way of showing pleasure without actually showing it.

“Lunch is ready in the dining room,” Jenny said. She looked down at her hands which were full of letters. “And then we can go through the post.”

Lester groaned. “How many are from Switzerland?”

“Four.”

“That blasted woman.” Lester pushed himself away from his desk and marched to the dining room followed by Jenny. Abby and Jess were already there and helping themselves to vegetable soup.

“Christine again?” Abby asked.

“What I ever saw in that woman is beyond me.” He sighed and looked over at the picture on the mantel of the fireplace. He'd folded it backwards so that only himself and his two children were now visible. It had been taken on holiday at Cardigan Bay in Wales and had ended up being the last time he'd had any contact with his children other than the occasional letter that their nanny managed to smuggle past his wife.

“Can't the solicitor do anything?” Jess asked.

“Unfortunately Christine's solicitor is almost as good as mine. Between them they're producing enough documents to paper the Earth.”

“I'm sorry,” Jess said, a little glumly. One of the recurring arguments between Lester and his wife had been about taking Jess in after her parents were killed in a house fire and she'd never stopped feeling guilty about their divorce, even if Lester was noticeably much happier for it. Her father and Lester had grown up together and she hated to think that she was the cause of any unhappiness in his life.

Lester reached forward and patted her hand. “Nothing for you to be sorry about.”

“Who's that?” Abby suddenly asked, standing up and pointing towards the French windows that lead out to the garden.

Lester turned, his hand still on top of Jess'. “For the love of...” he growled. “Where the hell is Becker?”

“Who is it?” Jess asked.

“A bloody journalist I'll wager,” he said. He quickly removed his hand from Jess' but he could well imagine what the photographer had captured. “If the camera had never been invented this would never have happened.”

“They'd probably just paint a picture,” Jenny said, amused despite herself.

Lester glared in her direction then realised that Abby was nowhere to be seen. They heard shouting from outside and could just make out Abby hitting the journalist over the head with Lester's discarded newspaper.

“Oh, good god,” Lester groaned, slinking into his chair.

Captain Becker, ex-military and head of Lester's security, soon joined in the fray and his voice echoed clearly inside the house even though the windows were closed. His first task was to have Abby removed by two of his men which was not easy as she continued to hit out and kick her legs even up to the point that she was deposited back into the dining room. Becker then tuned to the journalist but there was a great deal of shouting, some pushing and shoving and then some chasing as the journalist made a break for a colleague and threw his camera over a hedge even as he was grappled to the lawn by Becker.

“If anyone needs me,” Lester said, “I shall be in my office.”

Saying that he walked with great dignity to his office, locked the door, and then sank down onto one of the comfy sofas that his wife had banished from any other room in the house because of their garish yellow colour. But Lester didn't care what colour they were, all he cared about was that they were the most comfortable seats in both his country home and his London residence. He kicked off his shoes and, telling himself that he was only going to nap for a short time, lay down and fell into a fitful sleep.

* * * * *

“Lester? James, are you awake?”

Jenny knocked on the door a little harder and pressed her ear to the door. It was now almost dinner time and while she'd been happy to give him some time to himself after the debacle at lunch she really did need his signature on the documents in her hand.

“Any sign of life?” Becker asked, startling her by pressing his hand to her waist.

“Not yet.” She turned her head, almost close enough that she could feel the stubble against his cheek. “What have I told you...”

Becker grinned and planted a quick kiss against her temple. “Yes, Miss Lewis. No, Miss Lewis. Three bags full Miss Lewis.” He squeezed her waist and then went back to his patrol.

Jenny tried to ignore the blush she could feel spreading across her face. She and Becker had been flirting since he'd arrived to take charge of the security eighteen months ago but lately this seemed to have changed and she wasn't quite sure what to do about it. He was a little younger than her, but certainly not scandalously so, and he was handsome and brave and somehow made her forget about all her responsibilities just by the curve of his lips.

“He _is_ handsome,” Jess said and Jenny nearly jumped out of her skin.

“How, what, who -”

Jess laughed and gave Jenny a quick hug. “It's time you were happy again,” she said.

Jenny brushed some hair off Jess' face. “You are far too grown up for your own good.” She paused and chewed at her bottom lip. “Do you really think...?”

“Becker's nice,” Jess said. “He's always been really kind to me. And he clearly likes you a lot...Remembering the past is good but you shouldn't dwell on it too much.”

Jenny nodded. She had been engaged to a man she thought she loved very much but in the end he was completely unsuitable and under the thumb of his overbearing mother who had wanted Jenny to give up her job and start churning out babies at the earliest available opportunity. There had been a lot of harsh words exchanged and lots of tears shed and it was only really the support of Jess and Abby, and even Lester, that had helped her to get through it.

“Just think about it,” Jess said, before stepping back. “Cook says dinner will be ready in half an hour so I'm going to go have a quick bath.”

Jenny narrowed her eyes and noted that Jess was covered in some sort of black oil. She looked down at her own clothes and realised that after the hug some of the dirt had been transferred to her own outfit. They usually didn't bother changing for dinner on a weekday but today would have to be an exception.

“Sorry!” Jess said with a laugh as she took the stairs up to her room two at a time.

Jenny shook her head but was still smiling when Lester blearily opened the door.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing,” Jenny said, smile growing wider. “Did you have a good nap?”

Lester groaned and wiped a hand over his face. “What time is it?”

“6.30. Dinner will be ready in half an hour.”

“Ugh.”

“Eloquent,” Jenny said. “Do you have enough energy to sign these documents?”

Lester blinked a few times and took the pen and papers from Jenny. He focused enough to sign them with a steady hand before yawning and handing them back.

“I trust I haven't just signed away my organs?” he asked.

“Just transfers of the funds for the museum's on site security. Becker's written a proposal – that I'll put on your desk for later – while you go and have a bath.”

Lester nodded, yawning, as he went up the stairs to his bedroom.

He frowned as he could see under the door that his bedroom light was on and, preparing to berate whatever maid had done so, opened the door only to come face to face with Helen Cutter lying on his bed very much alive and wearing only a towel.


	2. Chapter 2

Connor Temple gingerly stepped around dirty plates, broken shards of glass, empty whisky bottles, and empty beer bottles and thought not for the first time that he was in well over his head. It had taken him until 2am to get Cutter to go to bed and he could now hear him, seven hours later, singing drunkenly to himself in the shower. 

With a grim shake of the head he found a dustpan and brush in one of Cutter's cupboards and started piling the rubbish together and then into the bin. By the time Cutter came trudging downstairs in a tartan dressing gown Connor had succeeded in clearing everything away and had the kitchen looking respectable again. 

“Morning!” Connor said cheerfully. 

Cutter looked around the room in surprise. “This was you?”

“My mam's a lady's maid now but she started out as kitchen maid to Lord Darnley,” Connor explained. “She used to take me with her and get me to help after my dad died and we moved back into the big house.”

“Thank you. I – I – this isn't your responsibility you know. You're supposed to be researching dinosaurs not cleaning up after ageing professors.”

Connor shrugged and followed Cutter into the kitchen, noting with interest the abrasions on Cutter's knuckles. 

“Tea?” Cutter asked.

“Please.”

Connor sat down at the kitchen table as Cutter moved about the room putting out the tea things. Several mugs were missing from their usual place having been smashed the previous evening. Cutter looked sheepishly in Connor's direction but stopped himself from apologising again. 

Connor had thought that Cutter was coming to terms with his wife's death but for some reason he'd deteriorated in the last couple of days. He didn't really know what he could do or say though; he hadn't really liked Helen Cutter and she definitely hadn't liked him so he'd kept out of their way when they were together and usually hid in Cutter's office compiling his documents into something resembling a system. 

“Are you coming back to work this week?”

“Yes,” Cutter said. He handed over a mug of tea to Connor and sat down himself. “In fact, I'm going to come back today. We need to write up that proposal for the Dover dig. And I need to check in with the Dean and see about taking on some of Helen's research students, or at least sorting out some other supervisors for them. They shouldn't – they shouldn't suffer because of her – death.”

Connor nodded solemnly and focused on his tea. He'd deliberately been keeping the recent newspapers away from Cutter, bad enough that some of them weren't convinced that Helen's death had been natural causes they were also suggesting that Helen had been having an affair with Sir James Lester which Connor couldn't believe for a moment. It was hard enough to believe he had children and an ex-wife never mind that he'd had sex with Helen. He gave a little involuntary shudder but thankfully Cutter was looking off into space and didn't notice. 

“Well, best get dressed,” Cutter said and disappeared upstairs to do just that.

* * * * * 

Cutter's university office was cleaner than he'd ever seen it and he promised himself that he would arrange for a hamper from Fortnum & Mason to be sent over to Connor's university rooms that afternoon as a thank you. Meanwhile however he needed to face the Dean, an uncompromising little man who'd lost half an arm and most of his senses during the war. 

“What's the explanation for this?” The Dean asked, throwing a newspaper in Cutter's direction. Cutter caught it easily and glanced at the front page. While he thought about it, he couldn't remember seeing any newspapers lately. 

“Well?” the Dean prompted again. 

Cutter opened up the newspaper, saw the words Helen Cutter and placed it, unread, on the Dean's desk. 

“Gossip.”

“Gossip? Helen Cutter was supposed to be a respectable member of this faculty. Do you understand what it took to get her a position here given her -”

Cutter raised an eyebrow. He had the nasty suspicion that the Dean was going to make an unnecessary comment on his wife's anatomy and had had quite enough of that. 

“She, obviously, was a very – woman- she was a woman, obviously,” the Dean continued and then stopped abruptly.

Cutter stood up. “Was there anything else?”

“You need to check in with her students and organise new supervisors.”

“Already on the case, thank you, Dean.” 

He walked calmly out of the office, teeth and fists equally clenched. His office was at the opposite side of the university from the Dean's so by the time he got back he had mostly worn out his anger by stomping down the halls and knocking over the slower students. Teaching had seemed the logical conclusion of his degrees when he was younger but the more time he spent around young people the more he realised there were very few he actually gave a damn about. 

“You've been keeping the papers from me,” he said as soon as he spotted Connor hunched at the little desk in the corner. 

Connor flinched a little and then mumbled a response into his notebook. 

“I'm not mad, Connor. I don't need to see it.”

“That's what I thought,” Connor agreed cautiously. He looked up at Cutter who gave him a reassuring smile and sat down at his own desk. Papers were piled into neatly organised stacks with the most urgent kept in place by a fossil that Cutter couldn't remember seeing in his collection. 

“Where did you get this?” he asked. 

Connor got up to have a look. “Oh, it was on your desk. I thought you'd put it there?”

It was a beautifully preserved ammonite, light brown in colour and Cutter could still smell the sea as he lifted it up to look at it more closely. Suddenly tentacles appeared and waved at him and he dropped it back onto the stack of papers. 

“Is that – alive?” Connor asked.

“It can't be. That's impossible.” Cutter picked it back up and looked at it more closely. “Does the biology lab still have some of those salt water tanks?”

“Um – I think so...”

Cutter was up and moving with the ammonite cradled next to his chest before Connor could finish talking and it took him a moment to realise that Cutter had left the room. 

The biology labs were in the building next door, accessed across the quad that was littered with students enjoying the first rays of spring sunshine. Cutter dodged around an impromptu game of cricket and pushed himself into the biology labs, waving away the shouts of one of the researchers. 

“You can't do that!” the researcher shouted again as Cutter did in fact put the ammonite into the salt water tank that was waiting for its next resident. 

“Think he just did, mate,” Connor said, breathing heavily. 

“It's Dr, not mate. And he doesn't have any authority in this building. He can't – what the hell is that anyway?”

Despite himself he moved forward and looked at the ammonite which was now floating serenely in the tank. 

“An impossibility, that's what it is,” Cutter replied. He squatted down so he could get a better look at it. 

“Can it survive in that?”

“I have no idea. We don't know nearly enough about what the seas were like back then.”

“Right,” Connor said, a little unsure. “But how did it get into your office?”

“Will someone please explain?” the researcher asked, interrupting before Cutter could say anything.

“What was your name again?” Cutter asked, standing up straighter. 

“Knightly. Dr Archibald Knightly. Deputy Head of Biology.”

“Dr Knightly,” Cutter said, “get out.”

“Wh -”

“Now.” 

Before Dr Knightly could respond Cutter had gripped the man by the arms and catapulted him out of the lab, pushing a chair up against the door so he couldn't get back in. Connor, who'd already been worried about Cutter's mental state since the discovery of Helen's body was now back to wondering who he could turn to for help. 

“Cutter?”

“You'll think I'm mad.”

“No I won't,” Connor said, despite having just thought exactly that.

Cutter smiled. “You're a good friend, you know that? A terrible liar, but a good friend.”

Connor shrugged not sure if this was something he was supposed to be happy about or not. 

“Helen – Helen had a theory that some of the evolutionary puzzles we've been working on were caused – were caused by man made events, not just quirks of evolution but of some sort of interference from humanity. I told her more than once that it was nonsense. That we simply didn't know enough – we don't know enough – to make those kinds of claims...But....”

“But?” Connor prompted as Cutter's gaze returned to the ammonite in the tank. 

“But she said she'd prove it one way or another. And when she did she'd bring me back an ammonite, like the first one we found together on our honeymoon.”

“But Helen's dead,” Connor said, even as he felt the hairs on the back of neck rise. “She couldn't have left it there.”

Cutter traced a finger against the side of the glass. 

“Yes. We saw her body.”

“So...?”

“So we need to go back to Lester's house. Can you organise a car?”

“We can't just drop in on someone like Sir James Lester.”

“We can today.”

“And what am I supposed to tell him?”

“I don't know Connor, tell him I've gone mad with grief. Tell him I need to see the spot where she died again so I can properly grieve. Or you can tell him the truth.”

“Right, and what would that be?”

“Tell him I don't think Helen's really dead.”

“I think I'll go with the grief thing,” Connor decided, though Cutter was no longer listening to him and instead had his face pressed up against the tank, as if the ammonite might be able to tell him all that it had seen in the last few days. 

He'd known somehow that it was too soon for Cutter to come back to work, now he just had to decide how to convince Cutter of that. 

And hopefully not embarrass himself in front of one of the richest men in the country while he was at it.


	3. Chapter 3

DCI Tom Ryan was thoroughly sick of hearing the name Helen Cutter. He understood that she had been a favourite in the press, a female scientist with her profile was a big deal, but what he couldn't understand was why the Commissioner kept insisting on updates on a case that had been buried, literally, a month ago. 

“That man is driving me to distraction,” Ryan said as he entered his office and found Stephen slumped on the sofa he only really kept there to have a sneaky nap after a long night. “Do you have any...”

He stopped abruptly once he got a clearer look at Stephen's face and the blooming bruise over his left eye and cheek. He checked his in-tray quickly but couldn't see the yellow sheet that would indicate an officer involved in a violent altercation and stepped back around his desk so that he could get a closer look at him. 

“I didn't know you'd been on a case.”

Stephen seemed to shrink even further into the sofa. 

“ _Stephen?”_

“I went to...” The end of his sentence was muttered so quickly that Ryan had no idea what he had said and he had to take a deep breath in order not to lose his temper. 

“Stephen, what did you do?”

“I went to see Nick Cutter. I told him...”

“Oh, Stephen.” 

Ryan shook his head and perched on the small coffee table in front of him. He liked Stephen but he really could make the stupidest of decisions. 

“I just wanted him to know -”

“No, you wanted him to absolve you of your guilt,” Ryan interrupted. “That wasn't fair on him and I'm not sure it was fair on you either.”

“You're right,” Stephen said after a long pause. “I don't know what I was thinking.”

“Did you hit him back?” 

Stephen blinked at him, confused. 

“A member of the public hitting a police officer is one thing, a police officer hitting a member of the public...”

“No, no, I didn't hit him back. I just...I told him, he hit me, I left.”

“Possibly the best decision you've made this week.” 

Ryan stood up and went to the door and asked one of the constables to bring in some tea and food. The Commissioner always seemed to forgot to provide the basic necessities when he called people into his office and Ryan hadn't eaten since early that morning. 

Ryan sat back at his desk and rummaged through the messages and files that had been left for him during his absence. There were a few missing person's cases that had dragged on well past the point that Ryan expected them to turn up alive, some burglaries and a nasty domestic violence case but nothing that required his immediate attention. 

Stephen was still staring into space and Ryan vowed to give him only as long as it took for the tea to arrive before he was going to set him on some task, any task, that would take his mind off things. Then the phone rang and all his half made plans flew out the window. 

* * * * *

Almost exactly a month to the day and Ryan and Stephen were once more heading up to Sir James Lester's country house. The somewhat hysterical phone call had come from one of Lester's maids indicating that an intruder was in the house, an intruder that looked very much like Helen Cutter. The line had gone dead at that point and while Ryan would in the normal course of events have dismissed it as a hoax, he no longer felt that the normal course of events counted where the Cutters were concerned. 

He'd been in two minds about even involving Stephen but had decided in the end that if Stephen were truly going to succeed in the police he needed to confront his past head on. Though hopefully with fewer fists flying this time around. 

“It can't be her, though, can it?” Stephen asked. “I examined the body myself.”

“Did she have a twin sister?” Ryan asked, thinking of his secret stash of Penny Dreadfuls and their often outlandish twists and turns.

“I don't think so,” Stephen said, taking his question at face value. “The only relative I ever heard her talk about was an aunt in Wales or somewhere.”

“Then until we get there and see for ourselves perhaps you ought to think about what you want.”

Stephen shifted anxiously in his seat. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the police isn't for everyone. There's no shame in wanting to do something else with your life.”

“No, this is what I want to do. It really is.” He looked over at Ryan and Ryan glanced over long enough to see that he at least believed what he was saying. “My parents went missing, when I was eight. Exploring the jungles of Borneo.”

Ryan looked surprised. “I didn't know that.”

“I don't talk about it. My grandparents raised me.”

“Your parents were never found?”

“No. But the policeman who came to fetch me from school was so kind and he kept coming back and filling us in on what he'd been doing to find them, I just thought one day that's what I wanted to do. Give someone hope.”

Ryan smiled softly to himself. Perhaps all was not lost after all. 

“Why did you join?” Stephen asked after some time had passed. 

“Oh, my dad was in the army, and my granddad, and my great-grandad going back forever. I joined up just like them and then somewhere along the way I realised I wanted to put people back together again, not just pull them apart.” He smiled and looked over at Stephen. “Two peas in a pod, eh?”

Stephen tentatively returned the smile and settled back more comfortably in his seat. 

* * * * * 

When they finally arrived at the house it was to a scene of such normalcy that Ryan was immediately suspicious. There were two cars in the driveway and more could be seen in the open doors of the garage off to the right of the house. One was a Rolls Royce with a personalised number plate that indicated it belonged to Lester, the other he didn't recognise from their previous visit. 

Ryan parked carefully in the middle, blocking off as best he could any potential escape. Stephen eyed him curiously but didn't say anything. 

Once they were out of the car the silence seemed more tense than anything and Ryan stood, just listening, his army training prickling at his skin. Something didn't feel right, something fundamental about the atmosphere. 

Before Ryan could see how Stephen was faring the front door was flung open and Connor Temple was running down the steps. 

He skidded to a stop when he saw Ryan and Stephen standing there and tripped over his own feet, doing a somersault in the air and sprawling onto his back. Stephen moved quickly to help him up while Ryan looked up at the top window where a glint of light had caught his eye. 

“Help,” Connor said weakly, “we need help.”

Stephen was reaching for Connor when Ryan shouted at him to get down and Stephen was immediately covering Connor with his body as the glass windows on the top floor shattered all over them and some sort of huge bird came flying out screeching so loudly that Ryan thought his eardrums might burst.

“What the f-!” Ryan cursed to himself as the bird circled around as if looking for some tasty prey to snack on. 

“Inside, now!” Ryan shouted running up to the house just as Captain Becker and two of his men appeared at the door armed with rifles. 

Stephen and Connor were scrambling together towards the house and Ryan threw himself to the floor as Becker knelt down, shouting at Ryan to stay still, and aimed at the bird above him. Ryan could feel the flap of the wings and the first quick brush of talons against his coat when Becker fired and the bird, carried to the side by its own momentum started to squawk, choke and flop next to Ryan, one of its wings hitting him on the head hard enough that he'd knew he'd be bruised for days. 

He didn't wait for the bird to come to a complete stop before he was up on his feet and running towards the safety of the house, breathing heavily and only when he had to blink blood away from his eyes did he realise that he was more badly hurt than he had first realised. Much more in fact as he found himself sliding down the wall, his legs no longer able to keep him upright.


	4. Chapter 4

Ryan came to consciousness slowly, his body sluggish and not wanting to let him move. It felt like a heavy blanket was draped across his shoulders, his fingers twitched but his eyes wouldn't open no matter how much he told them to. He tried to say something but his mouth felt like it was full of cotton wool and he couldn't make himself understood. 

Sound came to him as a rush of blood to his ears but eventually he started to filter out the familiar from the unfamiliar. He could make out Stephen's voice, and Lester's and then, as if his life were merely a page in one of his favourite novels, the Helen Cutter voice that had started haunting his dreams despite never having heard it before. 

“You're not making any sense,” Stephen was saying. “What the hell is that thing?”

“Surely you're familiar with a pterodactyl, Stephen?” Helen replied, and Ryan could well imagine her smile and the seductive cant of her hips. 

He tried to force himself to move but still everything felt like too much effort. He wanted to tell Stephen not to fall for whatever was going on here but he was afraid it was already too late for that. 

“Don't touch me,” Stephen hissed and Ryan would have cheered if he were able. “You're under arrest.”

“For what?”

“For – for faking your death somehow – I don't know just...” Stephen floundered some more as Helen laughed and then Ryan managed to get the strength to cough and once he'd started he couldn't stop. 

* * * * * 

The next time Ryan came back to himself he was sitting upright in one of the wingback chairs he recognised as belonging to the library in Lester's house. He'd been positioned next to a roaring fire that was doing a good job of warming his suddenly frozen limbs and a young woman was kneeling in front of it, adding some more wood from a pile that looked freshly cut. 

It took a moment for Ryan to realise that it was Jess Parker, whose bright ideas about inventions for the police force had earned him his first ever five course dinner with the Commissioner. 

“Jess?” he said, voice rough. 

She turned and beamed a smile at him. “Inspector, you're awake.” She moved forward and pressed a cool hand to his forehead and Ryan let his eyes fall closed. “We're having trouble with the phones so one of the guards went to fetch the doctor, he should be on his way soon.”

“Stephen?”

“In the dining room with the others.” She paused and bit at her bottom lip. “Captain Becker's guarding Helen Cutter in one of the zoo's storage rooms.”

“So it really is her?”

“Stephen thinks so. And so does Professor Cutter.”

“How...?”

Jess shrugged. “We don't know. She's not saying. Or, well she is saying but none of it's making much sense.”

“Story of my life,” Ryan muttered and started to push off the blankets. 

“Oh, no, you shouldn't be moving about. Becker said you've got a concussion, you can't...”

Ryan ignored her and tried to stand up. 

“Sit down you bloody fool.”

Ryan paused, his arms straining to lift himself and then sank down again. 

“I'll take it from here, thank you Jess.”

Jess nodded and darted out of the room and James Lester took her place, sitting on the chair opposite Ryan. 

“People normally need to get to know me a while before they start calling me a fool,” Ryan said. 

“I'm more discerning than most people,” Lester replied, perfectly straight faced and Ryan found himself chuckling despite himself. 

“What's Helen's story?”

Lester crossed his legs and looked into the fire. Ryan wanted answers but found he didn't mind the silence. He'd done a lot of research into James Lester since their last visit and discovered a man of contradictions, not at all the stuffy sort of aristocrat he'd bumped up against in the army. 

“Time travel appears to be the phrase of the day,” Lester finally said. 

Ryan tried to think what he knew about time travel. He'd certainly read some stories that had involved it as a major plot device and was familiar enough with H G Wells and Edith Nesbit's contributions on the subject, though perhaps he'd keep that to himself for the moment. 

“Do you believe her?” Ryan asked. 

Lester raised an eyebrow. “What a curious question.”

“One I see you have no trouble avoiding,” Ryan parried. 

Lester smiled and Ryan shifted, a long dormant heat pooling in his belly. 

“Nick Cutter seems to think there's merit to it. But of late his judgement has been somewhat suspect.”

“You've known him and Helen for a long time?”

“I've had more dealings with Helen, but yes, I've funded several of their expeditions.”

“Did you have an affair with Helen Cutter, Sir James?”

Lester's smile faltered only slightly and only noticeable if you'd been watching for it to do so, which Ryan had. 

“Been reading the awful presses, have you? You know we had a journalist break in only this morning taking photos of me with the ladies in my employ. Becker has identified him as Danny Quinn. I believe he used to be a police officer until there was some sort of scandal and he was fired, at least according to the Home Secretary, who was most illuminating when Jenny made enquries and who I also speak to on a regular basis, of course.”

Ryan's gaze hadn't drifted from Lester's face and he was pleased to see that Lester seemed a little flushed, though he was obviously working through the feeling by talking without pause. 

“Danny quit, he wasn't fired. He's a good man, just -” Ryan struggled to find a word that would encompass the being that was Danny Quinn and found himself completely lacking. 

“I see.” 

“You still haven't answered my question.”

Lester stood up abruptly and Ryan thought for a moment he was going to leave the room entirely but instead he went over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a large scotch which he gulped down in one before asking Ryan whether he wanted one. Ryan shook his head so Lester refilled his own glass and sat back down. 

“There was a drunken fumble at a fundraising party that I _deeply_ regret. It was however the catalyst for a lot of events in my life not least of which was my divorce.”

“Your wife knew?”

“She suspected. But then she suspected I was sleeping with everyone from Jenny to Jess and every woman I know in between including the cook who, whilst she makes the most perfect croquembouche you are likely to find this side of Paris, could easily snap me in two if she so wished. My wife's family own shares in several newspapers, hence the recent rush in journalists launching themselves around the grounds. What my wife did not suspect however was that my desires have not lead me to seek a _woman's_ comfort in a very long time.”

Ryan really wished he had a drink right now so that he had something to do with his hands or somewhere, anywhere else to look. As a police officer he was used to asking awkward questions without batting an eyelid but this was hitting a little too close to home. 

“Thank you for your candour,” Ryan said, aware he was being overly formal. 

Lester's slight nod was all too knowing and Ryan was just starting to wonder if the floor could possibly open up and swallow him when there was the sound of shouting from just outside the library, followed by two gun shots and yet another of Lester's windows shattered, only this time the creature falling through the glass was all too human.


	5. Chapter 5

“You always did know how to make an entrance.”

Danny Quinn grinned up at Ryan even as he was lying in a pool of glass with several small shards having pierced his skin. His camera was still wrapped around his neck and Ryan moved down to loosen it and put it to one side. 

“She's escaped,” Stephen said, suddenly, from the other side of the window. 

Ryan looked up from where he was examining Danny's injuries, not liking the tone of Stephen's voice. Before he could tell him to stay where he was Stephen was running away, presumably in the direction Helen Cutter had gone. 

“Damn it.”

Lester put a hand on his shoulder. “I'll take it from here.”

Ryan nodded, gratefully, and then dashed out of the room, dodging around Jenny and Jess who had been alerted by the sounds of breaking glass. 

Once outside he found Becker shouting directions at some of his men. 

“What happened?”

“She got hold of a gun...” Becker explained but faltered in the face of Ryan's furious incredulity. 

“Where did she go?”

“Rose garden,” Becker said, clipped and almost standing to attention. 

Ryan waved for Becker to show him the way and they ran on further into the garden and through a small wooden gate. Ryan had no idea how long he'd been unconscious, and didn't really think that running was going to do him much good, but the darkness seemed to be held at bay by one of Jess' electric light contraptions. 

Only as he got closer he realised that it wasn't Jess' light, at least not one he'd seen before. This was some sort of floating sparkly fractious light and in front of it were the figures of Helen and Stephen, too far away for Ryan to make out what they were saying, but close enough to know that none of it was complementary. 

“What the hell is that?” Becker asked. 

Ryan could only shake his head in answer then he and Becker stopped as one as Helen seemed to disappear into the light, followed seconds later by Stephen. 

“Stephen!” Ryan yelled out. _“Stephen!”_

But before they'd convinced their feet to move the light popped closed and suddenly the preternaturally silent night returned in full voice with owls and crickets and frogs all making themselves known. 

The only thing that was louder was the beating of Ryan's heart. 

* * * * *

“What do you mean, gone?”

Ryan was pacing up and down the dining room where the household had gathered in light of the destruction in the library. He'd tried to call for reinforcements and discovered that the problem with the phone lines was that they had been deliberately cut and he wasn't sure he trusted Becker's men to fetch help, since the promised doctor had yet to arrive, and even if they did the nearest house with a phone line was twenty or more miles away. 

“I mean they both disappeared into a shard of light,” Ryan snapped. Then waved his hand in apology, it wasn't Jenny's fault the world was spinning out of control. 

“She was right,” Cutter said. “She was right all along.”

Everyone turned to look at him. He was seated at the large dining table, his elbows resting on the edge and his hands held over his eyes as if trying to block out the world. It was the most Ryan had heard him speak in hours. 

Everyone waited a moment but Cutter didn't seem like he was going to say anything else and Ryan knew better at this point than to push the issue. 

“I'll see about some refreshments,” Jenny said, disappearing out of the room, Becker trailing behind her. 

“My editor is going to love this,” Danny grinned. He was propped up on two chairs in a corner with a blanket over his legs. 

“Your editor isn't going to hear anything about it,” Lester snapped. 

Danny's grin just grew wider. 

“He's right, Danny. This can't get out. Not yet,” Ryan said. 

Danny sighed exaggeratedly but nodded his agreement. “Whatever you say, Inspector. It is but ever my aim to please.” 

Ryan sank into a chair and Jess giggled as Danny winked at her, then covered her mouth and tried to look more serious. Jenny and Becker came back into the room carrying trays covered in sandwiches and tea things. 

“Does anyone copy?” Abby's voice suddenly squawked through the radio on Becker's shoulder. 

“Abby, this is Becker. What's the problem?”

“I need some help in the lemur enclosure. Inspector Ryan ought to see this.”

Becker looked over at Ryan who gave a weary sigh and pushed himself out of his chair. “We're on our way,” Becker told her. 

“You keep guns on the premises?” Ryan asked Lester. 

“Of course. Shooting season etc. They're in a secure cabinet.”

“It might be time to distribute some of them. Who here knows how to shoot?”

Danny, Lester, Jenny and Jess raised their hands. Ryan wasn't surprised that Jenny who seemed efficient at everything knew her way around a gun but he hadn't expected it of Jess. 

“I'm not a child, I know how to handle a gun,” Jess said, straightening her spine trying to look taller. 

“My apologies,” Ryan said. “If you and Jenny could get the guns and bring them here please. And keep together. That goes for everyone. I don't want anyone to go anywhere on their own – twos and threes.”

“You think that's necessary?” Lester asked. 

“Yes,” Ryan said simply and Lester nodded and started moving off, catching hold of Connor by the arm. 

“With me, young man, we need to check on the servants.”

“Oh, uh, right,” Connor said, shooting a curious look at Cutter who was still staring down at the table in front of him. 

The four of them headed out and Ryan looked at Danny who looked blandly back at him. 

“Keep him here, no matter what.”

They both looked at Cutter and waited for a response but Cutter seemed oblivious to everything around him. 

“No matter what,” Ryan repeated, his worry for Stephen colouring his words. 

“Understood,” Danny replied. 

Ryan nodded, satisfied that Danny would do what was necessary and then he and Becker jogged quickly over to the zoo. 

* * * * *

Ryan hadn't made it over to the zoo on their last visit and it was now too dark to see anything clearly. There appeared to be something wrong with the lights as they were flickering on and off in a way that would have been eerie if Ryan were that way inclined. 

In practical terms it was just annoying and he and Becker were struggling to make their way through until Abby activated one of Jess' newfangled lights and they could make their way more safely to the lemur enclosure. 

“How did Helen get hold of a gun, anyway?” Ryan asked as they waited for Abby to open up the locks. 

Becker shifted uneasily on his feet. “Communication breakdown.”

Ryan waited for more but Becker just stared straight ahead. 

“Communication breakdown?”

“That's right, sir.”

“That's not really an answer.”

“No, sir,” Becker agreed. 

Ryan was about to start cursing the day he'd joined the police force when Abby appeared in front of them, nervous energy evident in the way she couldn't quite keep still. 

“Are you okay?”

Abby nodded and then shook her head. “Something really weird is happening.”

“That has to the understatement of the year,” Ryan replied with a smile and followed her and Becker into the enclosure. “The lemurs aren't usually dangerous are they?”

“Oh, no. Neither are the visitors.”

“Visitors?” 

“When I heard all the shouting and the gun shots I hunkered down in one of the back rooms by the enclosure. The lights had gone out but then there was another light, a sort of flickering light that looked like it was floating mid air. I've never seen anything like it before. And before I knew it, they were tumbling out of it. I counted about seven but I'm worried I may have missed a few.”

“Them?” Ryan asked. 

Abby stopped and pointed. In amongst the lemurs who were looking at their new roommates with enquiring faces and reaching out occasionally to attempt some grooming were some squat birds with large beaks that seemed to waddle around a little bit like penguins. They jogged a memory in the back of Ryan's mind but it was Becker who recognised them first. 

“They can't be dodos. They're extinct.”

“If it squawks like a dodo...” Abby said with a shrug. 

They all looked at the birds in silence for a few moments. 

“Just what the hell is going on, Inspector?” Becker asked. 

“Helen said something about time travel, didn't she?” Ryan asked, rubbing at the back of his neck which he realised had been aching for some time now. “This would seem to be proof, of a sort. Can they safely stay here with the lemurs?”

“I suppose so,” Abby said after a moment. “They can't fly so there's no chance of them escaping. But what if one of those lights appears again and something bigger comes through?”

“Could we move them all to another part of the zoo?”

“The only empty enclosure has the body of that flying creature in it. I could put them in the aviary with the parrots though,” Abby suggested. “I'll need some help moving them.”

“I'll radio some of my men,” Becker suggested and Ryan nodded his agreement. 

“I don't want you going anywhere on your own,” Ryan told Abby. “The same rule is for everybody,” he added before she could form the objection he could clearly see she wanted to make. “Even me.”

“Best get to it then,” she said and started instructing Ryan and Becker in the best methods of corralling lemurs and dodos. 

* * * * * 

Stephen looked around in surprise not quite sure what had happened to him. One moment he had been in the rose garden at James Lester's house and the next he was in some sort of forest with what looked suspiciously like a herd of diplodocus feeding just across the plain from him. He also realised that the sun was beating down on him whereas before the night had been cooling when he'd left. 

“Impressive, isn't it?”

Stephen found himself swallowing around a sudden lump in his throat. Helen had told him countless times that she thought man had interfered with the evolution of every creature on the planet, and this would seem to prove it conclusively, even if he didn't yet understand how it was possible. And if she'd been right about this, then what else had she been right about?

“Come on, we haven't got much time.”

Helen started to move away but Stephen grabbed at her arm and pulled her back. “You're not going anywhere.”

“Really Stephen?” Helen asked, smiling and moving closer into his personal space. “Are you going to stop me?” She pressed her body up against him and he let go of her arm and moved back a few paces. Helen smiled and licked her lips. 

“What are you doing?”

“I'm taking you to your parents.”

Stephen blinked rapidly a few times and then took another few steps away from Helen. “Why, why would you -”

“It took me some time to find them, of course. But the first anomaly I saw was in Borneo, the same area where they disappeared all those years ago. I remember you telling me about them, Stephen. How proud you were of their adventures. The postcards they used to send you. One day when you were in the bath I went through them and used them to track your parents' route through the jungle.”

“You – you did what?”

“And then I went there and had a look around. They're the ones that helped me make so many discoveries of course, and got me my medals and my meeting with the Queen. I thought then that the anomalies were only a jungle phenomena. That's why I wanted Lester to fund another trip there, so I could get conclusive proof this time. And then I find that they're opening up here too.”

“You – what? How -” Stephen rubbed a hand across his face. This was all too much to take in. “What do you mean my parents helped you? Why didn't they come back?”

Helen took Stephen's hand and started to pull him further down the hill. In a daze he allowed himself to be pulled along, only half listening as Helen continued to explain herself. 

“My death was an unfortunate complication, I admit. Or it will be. I took a look at my body in the morgue. No bite mark,” she let go of Stephen's hand and lifted up her shirt to reveal pristine tanned skin. “So whatever gets me gets me later. Or perhaps it doesn't get me at all if I manage to change things.”

“You think you can change the past?”

“I don't see why not. Ah, here we are.”

They stopped by the side of a small river that was flowing quite quickly. Helen went first, sliding slightly down the bank until she came to a tree whose branches were dangling into the water. 

“There you are.”

Stephen followed carefully, his feet sinking into the mud. “What do you mean?”

Helen knelt down and started clearing mud away from the tree roots. As soon as part of a human ribcage was revealed Stephen stumbled backwards and started sinking into the mud, shaking his head in denial. 

“They've been dead for longer than you knew them, Stephen,” Helen said, even as she continued to clear mud from their bodies. 

“You don't, they can't...” Stephen shifted himself upwards his ears ringing and his stomach churning. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real. Any moment and he'd wake up from this horrible nightmare. 

Helen pulled off a necklace from one of the bodies and threw it carelessly in Stephen's direction. Stephen grabbed it with a shaking hand and felt the bile rise up his throat. He'd given his mother this exact same locket for her birthday, just before his parents had disappeared. 

He turned towards the river and emptied his stomach of it's contents. Helen just stood and watched dispassionately from a distance. 

“The anomaly will open up again in about three hours,” Helen said. “Give my regards to Nick.”

Stephen barely heard her, his whole body swaying as he knelt down trying to remember how to breathe. He felt like his chest was about to explode and couldn't get enough air. By the time his panic attack had receded and he was able to move towards the last remains of his parents he realised that Helen was long gone, and he was stuck millions of years in the past with only Helen's word that the means of making it home again was going to reappear. 

He'd never felt so alone.


	6. Chapter 6

Nick Cutter stared blearily up at the ceiling. One moment he'd been trying to leave the room, determined to do something, though he couldn't now remember what it was that he had intended to do, and then the next some buffoon was punching him in the face and sending him reeling. 

“What are you doing?” he heard a woman ask and then when she was leaning over him he realised it was Jenny Lewis, possibly the most competent woman he'd ever met and also the only woman he'd known that was willing to go toe to toe with his wife. 

“Ryan said not to let him leave. So I didn't.”

“I don't think this is what he had in mind.” 

“I do.”

Jenny glared at Danny and then helped Cutter to his feet. Cutter couldn't help remembering he'd been punching someone himself in recent days. Someone that also didn't deserve it. And now he was god knows where with Helen. From what Stephen had told him he didn't think he'd have gone with her willingly, which made it his responsibility to get him back. 

“Where's Inspector Ryan?”

“He's dealing with a situation at the zoo,” Jenny explained, pushing Cutter into a seat even as he tried to get out of it.

“I'd keep seated if I were you," Danny said, "less likely to come by an injury.”

Cutter sent Danny his best death glare but Danny only grinned. Cutter had met his type before and knew there'd been no point arguing with him. 

“What do you know about your wife's time travelling?” Danny asked, getting straight to the point. He ignored Jenny's look of disapproval as he took out his notebook and started making notes. 

Cutter stared off into the distance for a moment, vaguely aware that Connor and Jess had sat down at the table opposite him. 

“She always said that man had interfered too long in nature's progress. I though it was just talk, just crazy speculation. You know our understanding of dinosaurs is so new, such an exciting prospect, but I didn't – I didn't believe her when she said she knew for sure. She kept saying she'd get me proof. That she'd show all of us. I – our marriage was starting to suffer.” Cutter laughed bitterly to himself. “Or perhaps I'm just kidding myself. Maybe we didn't really have a marriage at all and Helen was only using me for the access she couldn't get as an unmarried woman.”

“So, she discovered these - lights – and has been travelling through them for years?” Jess asked. 

“It would appear so.”

“That's nuts,” Connor said. “How was she planning on keeping it quiet?”

“God only knows,” Cutter replied. 

“Maybe the lights only open in certain places, like on ley lines,” Danny suggested. The others looked at him blankly. “We've got this psychic at the paper -”

“You what?”

“You've got to be kidding.”

“Yeah, all right,” Danny said, waving a hand to quieten them down. “She's fairly harmless, lots of you will meet a dark haired stranger and all that. But – she's been doing this piece on mystical lights around the globe. All appear on these ley line things that produce earth energy. Maybe that's what these lights are. The Germans are very big on it apparently.”

“That's bloody absurd,” Lester said. He'd been standing by the back of the room organising the guns along with a couple of his servants. 

Cutter shook his head. “I think he might be on to something. It makes a kind of sense. Can you get hold of this – woman?”

“Mystic Maria. She's not got a telephone. I only see her in the office, I'm not even sure where she lives. I could try and have a look for her?”

“No,” Lester said. “Inspector Ryan doesn't want anyone to leave the premises.”

Danny shrugged and started writing notes again. Lester looked at him and was clearly considering whether to tip a jug of water over his notebook so Jenny hurriedly got up and started handing out sandwiches. 

Connor grabbed three and put two in his mouth at once. Cutter smiled for the first time in days and followed suit at a slightly slower pace, he wasn't sure how long it was now since he'd last eaten, in fact he wasn't all that sure what time it was. 

“What I don't understand,” said Jess, nibbling delicately at a cheese sandwich, “is how Helen was dead a month ago but is now alive again.”

“Simple,” said Connor and then chewed a bit and coughed a bit and drank a sip of water before he could carry on. “You see the Helen we saw last month was the later version of the Helen we saw today. So the Helen we had dinner with that night went through one of these light things and has been doing who knows what while the later Helen got herself killed somehow while travelling in time.”

“But she didn't look much older,” Jess said slowly, trying to work it out as she spoke, “so this Helen who's escaped is going to die soon but we won't see it because we've already seen her dead? So she could be dead now and her body back in the past and we wouldn't know about it? Then what about Stephen? What's happened to him?”

“Well he wasn't with Helen's body when she died, so he must be...” Connor trailed off as he realised he was talking about a real person and not one of his theories. “Well, maybe he'll make his way back all right,” he added a little uncertainly. 

“I don't know about anyone else,” Lester said, “but I need a strong drink. Havers, if you and Michaels could bring in a selection.”

The servants nodded and left the room. Lester moved to the head of the table and sat down, kicking Danny's feet off his chair. 

The clock in the hallway chimed eleven as the servants returned with a tray of glasses and decanters and started handing them out. All of them except Connor took a glass and silently sipped their chosen beverage – gin, whisky, or port. Suddenly they found that none of them had anything further to say. 

* * * * *

Ryan wiped the sweat from his brow and watched in satisfaction as the dodos and lemurs seemed to settle well into their new home. He knew he hadn't been training as much lately as he had in the army but perhaps it was time to get back into running through Hyde Park before he embarrassed himself in front of his men. Becker, annoyingly, didn't look like a hair was out of place. 

“I think that's all of them,” Abby said, making some notes on a board that she placed near the door and then securely locking everything behind her. 

“Do you manage all of this on your own?” Ryan asked. 

“I have a couple of full time staff that come in from the village, and some part-timers from the University during the holidays. We get along,” she said with a smile. 

“It's very impressive.”

“Thank you,” Abby said, looking pleased and slightly embarrassed. “Lester gives me a lot of leeway to run it as I see fit.”

“Why did he choose to have a zoo here in the first place?”

“He didn't have a choice - the deeds of the house stated there had to be animal containment here and how it was all to be laid out, dating back years and years of the Lester family.”

Ryan felt the familiar tickling at the back of his mind when an idea was starting to form itself. “Animal containment?” he asked. “Is that what the deeds say?”

“I'm pretty sure, yeah,” Abby agreed. “There are...” She trailed off as the same idea occurred to her. “You think whoever built the house...”

“...already knew something was going to come through,” Becker finished. 

The three of them looked at each other and then the lights went out. 

* * * * *

“Everyone stay calm,” Lester said, though indeed no one had said or done anything except tense up when the lights had plunged the room into darkness. 

“Does anyone have a torch?” Jenny asked.

Danny flicked a torch on and beamed it around the room, quickly followed by Jess who was markedly more careful in where she aimed it.

“Where's the fuse box?” Danny asked. 

“Havers can show you,” Lester said. The tall servant with a serious demeanour edged towards Danny and they moved cautiously out of the room. 

“Where are the guards?” Jenny asked, peering outside the window and trying to make out any dark shadow of movement. 

“Sleeping off the night before I shouldn't wonder,” Lester said, feeling his way carefully to a seat and sinking down into it. “Becker's the only one with any sense of discipline.”

“You're the one who insisted on taking your solicitor's opinion instead of Becker's,” Jenny replied with some asperity.

Lester seemed to think better of replying and then frowned as if a rather obvious thought had only just occurred to him. 

Cutter stood up and pushed the chair away with such force that it fell to the ground, making everyone jump. 

“We should be out there looking for that – that Stephen – the lights – the anomaly, for want of a better word. We shouldn't be hanging around here in the bloody dark.”

“We don't know how to find them, though, Professor,” Connor said. 

“Yes, yes we do! They must be fixed in space if not in time. They must open at the same place. That's the only thing that makes sense of all this, how else would Helen know where to go and when? Because she knew, she mapped it, she worked it out where they would reopen, _when_ they would reopen. All this time, all her research, her papers, the reason she wouldn't let me see them it's all so clear now. Everything she's ever done has been working towards this. The trips, the hikes into jungles that she wouldn't let me go with her. I thought – I thought it was because she wanted to prove herself, prove that a woman could do these things alone. I wanted to share with her but she never...she never wanted to share with me and it's because she knew, she knew what all this was leading towards. The greatest discovery the world has ever seen and she wanted it all to herself. Of course she did. Why did I ever believe that...How could I ever....” 

Cutter trailed off as his outburst, the words flowing and mingling and tripping over each other seemed to finally make him deflate and he sank rather halfheartedly onto the floor, his back up against the wall, his expression hidden from the others as Jess' torchlight didn't quite stretch that far. 

Everyone shifted awkwardly in their respective positions and the light flickered across the ceiling as Jess carefully adjusted the torch to balance on the table so it covered as much as the room as was practical.

“Nothing wrong with the fuses,” Danny said, stomping into the room and then stopping abruptly at the obvious tension. He held the light under his face and protruded his eyes grotesquely until Jess and Connor had to turn away and stifle their laughter. 

“Why did you leave the police?” Lester asked him. 

“Ran away to join the circus,” Danny replied. 

“What do you mean, there's nothing wrong with the fuses?” Jenny asked, interrupting an obvious argument before it began.

“Lights should be on,” Danny said with a shrug. “But they're not. I'm thinking outside forces might be at work.”

“Outside forces,” Cutter repeated. “Yes, outside forces.” 

Before anyone could react Cutter had jumped up from his seat on the floor and dashed by Danny and out of the room. 

“Bloody hell,” Connor said, trying to move after Cutter and only succeeding in smacking his knees against the table. 

“I'll go,” Danny said. 

“Take this,” Lester suggested, and handed him one of the shotguns. Danny nodded and disappeared after Cutter. 

* * * * *

Cutter was banging about by the back door, hopping on one leg and rubbing at the other. He would have tripped head first down the steps into the garden if Danny hadn't grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back.

“Whoa, there, Prof, watch where you're going!”

Cutter sagged against Danny for a moment and then pushed him away. “Look!”

The sky suddenly became bright as the anomaly in the rose garden started to pulsate, even brighter than they'd seen it before. It was beautiful and they both stood, awed despite themselves, as it grew bigger and started to spew forth a dense yellowish cloud that wafted its way over to them. 

“What the hell is that?” Danny asked. 

“I don't know – it -" Cutter's explanation was cut off by coughing which he suddenly found he couldn't control. Danny went to help him and found that he too suddenly couldn't breathe. 

“Smoke,” Danny croaked desperately. “Smoke.”

They fell to their knees but before they could move away they slumped down into unconsciousness. 

* * * * 

“It's open again!” Ryan said as the anomaly from the now empty lemur enclosure grew into a pulsating shard of lights that necessitated them all turning off their torches. He ran forward towards the enclosure and motioned at Abby to open up the door. 

“You're not seriously considering going in after him?” Becker asked. 

Ryan hesitated. The sensible thing would be to stay and observe but there was no way of finding out how Stephen was doing and if nothing else the young man was his responsibility. 

“Do either of you have a go bag nearby?”

“There's one in the zoo offices,” Abby said. “Just next to the enclosure. You'll be able to see me all the time. I keep it stocked with expedition gear in case an animal gets loose and we have to track it through the woods. It won't take me a minute to fetch it.”

Ryan nodded and Abby ran off. Becker removed his gun and handed it over to Ryan. 

“You're going to be needing this.”

Ryan nodded. “Thank you. I trust I can rely on you to keep everybody safe until I get back?”

“Absolutely,” Becker promised, twitching his arm as if he was about to salute and then remembered what he was doing. 

“If there's no news by morning...”

“I'll send men to the police station and get back up. What should I tell them?”

“I'm sure you'll think of something,” Ryan said with a small smile and then turned towards Abby who rather breathlessly put her bag into his hand. 

The light of the anomaly started to pulsate in different patterns and Ryan figured it was now or never. Abby opened the door for him and she and Becker stood well back as Ryan approached the anomaly, feeling a tug at the metal on the bag strap. 

He turned around for one last look at the world he'd been certain he knew and then stepped confidently into a world he didn't.


	7. Chapter 7

Ryan hadn't known what to expect when he'd stepped through the sparkling lights, he'd only hoped that the air was breathable, having had a sudden flash of remembrance of HG Wells' tale of men on the moon. Thankfully he didn't collapse on setting foot in to this old new world and he took a couple of extra deep breaths just to make sure. 

Something dangerous sounding roared in the distance and Ryan hunkered down and slid down from the anomaly to behind some bushes, making himself as small and inconspicuous as possible. Memories of European battlefields and the stench of death threatened to overwhelm him and he put his hands down flat on the earth and tried to bring himself back to the present. Or the past, he supposed with a rueful shake of the head. The police was supposed to have been an easy route to retirement. Just goes to show what happens to people when they make plans. 

Ryan kept his breathing quiet and steady and waited to see if anything would happen. Another roar, this time definitely closer and the animals with long necks that had been grazing nearby started to move. At any other time Ryan might have stayed to watch these dinosaurs he'd read about in the newspapers move with so much grace despite their size, but at any other time he wasn't really in danger of being squashed by one of them. He took out a knife from Abby's bag, made a quick mark on the tree so that he'd know this was where the anomaly was to reopen and then was just considering running parallel to the way the dinosaurs were running, in the hopes that they knew somewhere safe to hide when he spotted a coin in the undergrowth. 

Ryan picked it up and squinted. It was one of the coins minted during the Great War, still shiny and new. Discounting the fact that there were a whole host of time travellers from the 1920s wandering around in the past, this could only mean that Helen, Stephen or both had been this way. 

The next roar was closer still and the ground started to rumble and shift from the pounding it was receiving from the dinosaurs running for safety. Ryan knew he had no option but to move as quickly as he could and he took a chance, ducking under the long limbs of a dinosaur and praying that he was fast enough to reach the other side. 

Suddenly without warning he was on the bank of a river, the momentum taking him over and down. He tried to regain his balance, to reach out to a branch or part of the undergrowth but his fingers slid through the leaves and he could feel the twigs cutting into the palm of his hand. He hissed in pain and then gulped down a mouthful of water as he disappeared into the fast flowing river, the cold shocking his heart into straining against his chest, his throat constricting and cutting off all air. He knew he had to fight, he knew he had to swim and find his way back to the shore but he was so cold and the river was so fast, and suddenly there was nothing but darkness and no way out. 

* * * * * 

“Jenny, Jess! We need your help.”

Jenny and Jess came running just as the lights in the house flickered back into life. Connor, who'd been watching with interest as some sort of mist looked like it was being dragged back through the anomaly, gasped as the anomaly suddenly disappeared. 

“Connor, focus!” Lester snapped and Connor turned around and started to help the others pull the unconscious Danny and Cutter back into the house. 

“Are they breathing?” Jess asked.

“Yes, yes, I think so,” Lester said. “My office, the sofas in my office,” he finished by grunting. Danny was certainly just as heavy as he looked and he and Jenny were struggling to keep him from dragging along the floor. Jess and Connor were having even more difficulty carrying Cutter between them and were almost at the point of giving up when some of the servants appeared and efficiently took over, lying Danny and Cutter down on the matching sofas in Lester's office chosen for their length and comfortableness during sleep. 

“Havers, the first aid kit, please,” Jenny said and Havers quietly left the room, remembering to take one of the other servants with him. 

“What happened?” Jess asked, loosening the first few buttons on Danny's shirt.

“I think it was that smoke,” Connor said. “It was coming in through the lights and then it started going out again.”

“Just as well you decided to see what was happening,” Jess said to Lester who nodded distractedly as he rechecked Cutter's pulse. The man was infuriating but still somewhat of a friend. 

Havers returned with the first aid kit just as Danny started to cough and flail his arms. Jess held his arms so he wouldn't hurt himself and Danny opened his eyes with a grunt and a curse so obscene that Jess turned bright red. 

“That's enough of that, thank you,” Jenny said. She helped Jess to her feet. “Why don't you and Connor go and get some water?”

Jess nodded and grabbed Connor by the hand and dragged him out of the room. 

“Where's the Prof?” Danny asked around a dozen or so coughs. 

“He's right here,” Jenny said. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Smoke coming out of the light. It felt, like I was choking, and smelt off. Like, mustard gas or something.”

Danny was racked by another fit of coughing and Jenny gently rubbed his back as he started to turn a rather distressing red colour. 

Lester opened up the first aid kit and started to root around for something useful, but medicine had always seemed like a foreign language to him and he didn't know where to start. Jenny was no better but Havers once again came to the rescue, kneeling down and taking out a syringe and a bottle of some clear liquid. 

“I believe this will assist, sir, ma'am.” He moved to give the syringe to Lester and then remembering Lester's aversion to needles presented it to Jenny. 

“I think perhaps...” Jenny said.

Havers nodded and gave Danny the injection before he knew what he was about. 

“Bloody hell,” Danny muttered. “All I wanted was a story.”

“Serves you right for breaking in in the first place,” Lester muttered, as Havers retrieved a second syringe and gave a similar injection to Cutter who was slower to wake up but had started to look about himself in confusion. 

“ _James_ ,” Jenny hissed. 

Lester got up with a groan. “I am merely stating a fact.”

Connor and Jess came back into the room with two glasses of water. Jess gave hers to Jenny who helped Danny take a few sips. Connor hesitatingly tried to pass his glass to Lester whose expression quickly disabused him of that idea and instead he moved to kneel down next to Cutter and helped him to sit up and take a drink. 

“Should he be doing that?” Cutter asked, vaguely motioning in Havers' direction. 

“He served as a medic during the War,” Lester said. “He's had extensive training in all manner of things.”

“And he works as a butler?” Danny said.

“There is nothing wrong with being a butler, sir. I am well compensated and enjoy my job.”

Danny looked abashed for a moment. “Righto, sorry.”

“I took the liberty of getting some of the servants to search for the armed guards, sir,” Havers said. “They appear to have left the premises.”

“They've done what?” Lester snapped. 

“Sorry, sir. They appear to have removed all their belongings from their quarters as well, sir.”

“Thank you, Havers. Could you and the other make sure that the building is secure please? Take whatever weaponry you need.”

Havers nodded and left the room. Lester looked like he wanted to rage and storm about but was holding himself back for the sake of Danny and Cutter who still looked a little grey around the gills. 

“Your solicitor is really something,” Jenny said. 

Lester was about to agree when Jess' furtive reaction caught his eye. 

“Jess?”

Jess looked over at Cutter and then indicated to Lester that she wanted to talk to him privately. They stepped out into the hallway, Jenny following. 

“I wasn't – I didn't think it was really any of my business,” Jess said. 

“But?”

“Last year, at the masked ball. I saw Helen and Mr Sheldon, your solicitor, in one of the bedrooms.”

“You're sure it was them?” Jenny asked. 

“I – yes,” Jess said, blushing. “Their masks must have come off when they were – removing – when they were taking off their tops.”

“Oh good Lord,” Lester said, running a hand over his face. “And what does this have to do with...?”

“They were talking about the guards, that's why I – I mean I didn't stay long or – I didn't want to....”

“Jess,” Jenny said, putting a comforting hand on her arm. “It's fine. What did you hear them talking about?”

“Mr Sheldon was saying how happy he was with the soldiers she'd provided for security at his office, and she, she suggested they'd be good for the house. But that you might not take the suggestion from her.”

“The guards were working for Helen?” Lester asked, a sinking feeling developing in the pit of his stomach. “What the hell has that women been doing? Becker too?”

“I don't...”

“No,” Jenny said. “Absolutely not. I refuse to believe it. I won't believe it. Havers recommended him. He had nothing to do with Helen.”

Lester raised an eyebrow and Jenny straightened her shoulders, realising that perhaps she had been a little more adamant in her defence than the situation warranted. 

“What I mean is...” Jenny began, but whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the man himself and Abby running into the house. 

“The old deeds to the house, they're still in the library aren't they?” Abby asked all in a rush. 

“What are you talking about Abigail?”

Abby's full name made her pull up short and she glared at Lester before she knew what she was doing. 

“We need to check the deeds to the house,” Becker explained. “Are they still in the library, sir?”

“Yes, but I don't...”

Abby and Becker moved off and a curious Lester and Jenny followed while Jess went back into Lester's office to help with Danny and Cutter. 

The library was still in some disarray from earlier in the day though the servants had done a decent job of keeping the disturbance to a minimum. Lester wondered idly how much all of this was going to cost him. 

“What are you looking for, exactly?” Jenny asked, directing Abby and Becker to the family history section of the library. 

“Inspector Ryan was asking about the zoo,” Abby explained, “and we realised that the design of the zoo was laid out perfectly to correspond to where the lights appear. Even the ones in the garden – if Mrs Lester hadn't wanted to rearrange the rose garden there would have been containment pens there too.”

Lester remembered the argument vividly and had surrendered in the end with the agreement that the children would be enrolled at the local village school instead of away at boarding school. An agreement that was broken almost as soon as it was made. 

“So we were thinking,” Becker said, as he pulled down files and started flicking through documents, “that the previous owners may have had an idea about what was happening.”

“Old Man Chronos,” Lester said suddenly, causing all of them to look at him in some confusion. “My great- great, something or other. I can't recall his real name, but that's what everyone always referred to him as. He built this house. It was him who planned everything. He's the one that insisted on the zoo and the positioning of it all. It does make a sort of sense.”

“It does?” Jenny asked. 

“Chronos,” Lester said, and waited for the penny to drop. The others just continued to look confused. “What are they teaching you in schools these days? His nickname was Chronos, Chronos of course being the personification of time in Ancient Greece.”

“Of course,” Jenny said, dryly. “It all makes perfect sense.”

“Here we are,” said Becker. “Plans, notes, there's an index....” Becker trailed off. “Some of these appear to be missing. I think at least one notebook is gone.”

“Could have been lost over the years,” Abby suggested. 

“No,” Jenny said. “Don't you remember? We had a big renovation of the library last year. Everything was accounted for then, if not there'd be a note.”

Becker carefully checked a second time but there was nothing to suggest that the notebook had been missing at the time of the renovation. Which could only mean that someone had removed it and not thought to bring it back. They could easily imagine who that had been. 

“Where is he, anyway?” Lester asked. “Inspector Ryan? Did he stay behind at the zoo?”

“Not exactly,” Abby said. 

“Tell me that fool of a man didn't go through one of those lights?”

“He was worried about Stephen." 

“His loyalty is commendable,” said Lester, “if not his judgement.”

The clock in the hall chimed twelve and Lester groaned. All he wanted right now was a warm bath and a cool bed, and he couldn't see any hope of that appearing in the near future. 

“This looks promising,” Becker said, shifting over a little so Abby could get a closer look. “There's talk of those ley line things, but also...”

“This is more Jess and Connor's area than mine,” Abby said. “But – it looks like your great-great whatever had designed something to stop the lights from opening.”

Lester snatched the papers from Abby's hands and moved closer to the light so he could get a better look. He realised he was fooling nobody but he didn't want to have to bring out his recently acquired reading glasses just then. 

The sheet looked like complete nonsense to him, but he never had been able to follow Jess' leaps into scientific discovery. But if there was a chance, no matter how small, that this madness could be put to an end they had to try. He just hoped it didn't mean leaving Stephen and Inspector Ryan stuck in the past forever.


	8. Chapter 8

Ryan had never given much thought to what it would feel like to drown. He was starting to wish he had, if only to recognise at what stage his brain would join his body in shutting down and he could get on with the act of drowning rather than thinking about it. He'd already realised that his body no longer wanted to do what he told it and gave a fleeting thought to the probable concussion that he'd been ignoring and the growing headache that he hadn't told anyone about. 

The cold was almost pleasant now and his mind was just drifting to what sorts of prehistoric creatures might be about to eat him when he felt a sharp tug at his shirt followed by a disorientating smack to his chest which removed the last vestiges of breath from his lungs. 

He found that he was moving around, that suddenly his arms were flailing of their own accord and then a hand was reaching for him, grabbing hold of his biceps and then digging in painfully under his armpit. He thought, insanely, that Helen Cutter was going to reveal herself as his saviour but once he surged up out of the water he realised that it was a rather desperate looking Stephen screaming at him to move. 

He started to cough, found he couldn't stop and that was hindering Stephen's work and he knew that he should help but everything was confused and all he could do was listen gratefully as Stephen cursed and pulled him up onto the shore. From what he could make out he'd become tangled in a tree root and Stephen had cut hands, legs and cheek reaching him before the branch broke away and swirled down into what Stephen told him rather distractedly was a “fucking great big waterfall”. 

None of this made much sense though he'd often look back on this moment in later years and see it as the point when everything changed. 

Stephen knelt next to him and made as if to check Ryan's breathing but Ryan managed to raise his hand and instead of waving Stephen away as he'd intended, found himself grasping Stephen's hand in his, just to remember what it felt like to touch another human being. 

“You're supposed to be more sensible than this,” Stephen said. “That's what the Commissioner told me. Ryan's unit will be good for you, he said. No steadier hand in the whole of the Division.”

Ryan blinked water out of his eyes. “We served in the army together. The man always could talk out of his arse.”

Stephen gave a fractured smile as Ryan started to cough and then turned to the side to vomit up water and god knows what else that he didn't want to think about too closely. He came back to himself vaguely aware that Stephen was rubbing his back. 

“Helen?” he croaked. 

Stephen shrugged. “She left.”

“Help – up.” 

Stephen helped Ryan to sit up and leant him gently against the tree. Ryan took a few shallow breaths and tried to assess his injuries. As best he could tell he was still in one piece which was probably better than he could have asked for. 

“We need to get moving,” Ryan said, trying and failing to lift himself up. Stephen batted his hand away. 

“You're in no fit state to go anywhere.”

“We can't stay here.”

A load roar echoed near their heads. Stephen moved closer to Ryan and started fumbling with Ryan's bag which despite looking pretty beaten up had stayed on his back.

“Did you bring a gun?” Stephen was asking as the roar grew closer. 

“Gun. Right, gun.” Ryan sprung into action, his military training taking over as he helped get the wet backpack off his shoulders and open the sticking zip. 

They jumped as something that was all teeth and claws appeared in front of them, snarling and sniffing in their direction. Stephen took aim and fired with no hesitation and the creature slumped down, dead before it's head even hit the ground. 

“What were you saying about moving?” he asked a grinning Ryan. 

“Lead on Macduff,” Ryan replied. 

* * * * * 

“Do you really understand any of this?”

“Most of it,” Jess said, pushing and pulling Danny out of the way as she moved around her workspace, her mind working faster than she could convey in words. 

Her workspace was a medium sized shed next to the garages at the front of the house. She had had full reign here since she'd first moved in, Lester supplying her with whatever she wanted at first and then, as her inventions became more complex and her reputation with the village grew she started selling her inventions in order to buy her own supplies becoming completely self-sufficient before she was 18. Now whenever a local had a request, particularly the local farmers, she gave them a decent price and got to tinker and invent to her heart's content. 

Lester had seen her potential from the very start and gave her every opportunity to meet with the eminent scientists of the day and learn how to decipher plans and then write her own. Most of them were sceptical and patronising and only humoured her because Lester was her patron, but there were a few who had been welcoming and invited her to sit in on what were traditionally male only lectures, provided she sat at the back and concealed her identity. 

Danny had designated himself her knight in shining armour once he'd recovered enough from the gas to move about and Lester hadn't objected too strenuously, which in Lester speak meant that he approved. 

Connor and Abby were back in the library ostensibly looking for more documents, but Jess thought that there might be more to Connor's attentions, if only he'd get up the courage to ask Abby how she felt. 

“And this is what you do for a job is it?”

Jess nodded absently as she mentally ticked off the bits and pieces she would need for what Lester's ancestor had called an anomaly locking device. She piled them onto her workstation and pulled out a scrap of paper and a pencil with the intention of making some notes when stacks of old newspapers toppled over on to her feet – she'd been planning on using them as kindling. 

As Danny started to help her pick them up she realised that this was the newspaper that Danny worked for and that it wasn't that long ago he was trying to dig up salacious gossip about herself and Lester. She looked over at him and he sighed, the newspapers having jogged his memory as well. 

“Look, I am sorry about all that. I followed a lead, and I got it wrong. Lester– well, he's not that bad.”

“He's the best man I know,” Jess said. She stood up and turned back to her workstation. “Was it Christine?” she asked after a moment. “Did she want you to find some dirt on Lester?”

“Christine? Oh, right, the wife. I don't know. Anonymous tip-off. She really doesn't like him very much, does she?”

Jess looked over to the door to make sure she wasn't being overheard. “I don't think she ever really liked him. She only married him for his money.” She looked a little glumly down at her hands. “I'm not sure she really likes her children, either, she's always been pushing them away to boarding schools and camps and with the nanny. She never spends any time with them. They're like my siblings and I'm not even allowed to write to them.”

Danny pulled her into a quick hug and she sniffled a little on his shirt before stepping back with a watery smile. 

“Right,” she said, “we've got work to do.”

* * * * * 

“Are they human bones?” Ryan asked.

Stephen hesitated and then nodded. They'd made it along the shore to the place where Helen had abandoned him and Stephen could still see the deep indentations next to the bones made by his knees in the mud where he'd rested for he didn't know how long until the splash of Ryan falling into the river had alerted him to a danger outside of himself that called for action. 

“Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs?” Ryan asked, certain that the answer was going to be no. 

“Helen said they were my parents,” Stephen said quickly, as if pulling off a particularly hardy plaster.

Ryan nodded slowly to give himself time to work out what, if anything, was an appropriate reaction to this information. 

“She said one of the bodies had this,” Stephen said, showing Ryan a locket he was now wearing around his own neck. “I know it was my mum's but -”

“But you don't know if Helen was telling the truth? That does seem to be something of a theme with her. Could she have got the necklace any other way?”

Stephen shrugged. “They went missing in Borneo. Helen has spent a lot of time there. It's possible, I suppose.” He looked at Ryan with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “But they could still be my parents though, couldn't they?”

Ryan sighed. He really had no idea. This whole time travel business was not exactly what he'd signed on for in either chapter of his life. 

“Did they have any breaks, injuries that might show up on their bones?” Ryan asked, kneeling awkwardly next to the remains. They needed to move back to where the lights would hopefully reopen but he knew that they couldn't do that without first settling Stephen's mind. 

“Um, I don't...I don't know. I – my dad. He broke his right arm when he was little. I remember, sometimes when it was cold, he used to complain about it. Said the doctor didn't set it quite right.”

“Perfect,” Ryan said, respectfully moving the bones so he could get a closer look at their arms and try to work out which was male and which was female. He was suddenly glad that he'd always taken such a keen interest in the police surgeon's dark arts. 

Stephen carefully moved to kneel next to him. “Can you – can you tell?”

Ryan hesitated and then nodded. “No break, Stephen. Whoever these people are, I don't think they're your parents. For one thing, I'm pretty sure they're both male.”

Stephen took a deep breath, and then another and Ryan moved quickly to place a hand on his chest, trying to will Stephen not to have a panic attack. Stephen nodded gratefully and watched the rising of Ryan's chest as a way of remembering how he was supposed to breath. 

“How could she have lied to me like that?” Stephen asked, finally. 

“You told me once that you'd rejected Helen, and she threw you out? This could just have been her way of getting revenge. She doesn't strike me as a very forgiving person.” Ryan shivered, it definitely felt like it was getting colder and he was still soaking wet. “We do need to move, Stephen. It's starting to get dark.”

Stephen looked around as if he'd only just become aware of the change in the light. He cursed under his breath and stood up quickly, helping Ryan to his feet and then supporting him as they half walked, half-jogged back to where the lights should be reappearing. 

At first there was nothing, just empty space for as far as the eye could see and then a loud snuffling sound alerted them that they were not alone. They froze and continued to stand as still as statues while they tried to work out where the sound was coming from. 

Ryan slowly turned his head to the side and saw a pair of golden eyes watching them, unblinking. He could feel Stephen trembling next to him and slowly moved them so that he was between Stephen and whatever was watching them. 

Then right behind them the world became ablaze with light and just as the creature moved to jump, Ryan pushed Stephen through the anomaly, and braced for impact.


	9. Chapter 9

“And you're certain that this will work?” Lester asked, staring down at Jess' familiar scribble. He didn't usually follow all of her plans and definitely couldn't read all of her writing, but she did have a remarkable knack for explaining the actual science behind her inventions in a way that made sense. He'd hoped one day that she'd be teaching his own children science, but that idea seemed even more remote now than before. 

Jess took Lester's assessment as he had meant it, as she always did. “Certain is a strong word but your ancestor certainly knew his stuff, and Connor and I know ours,” she added with a beaming smile that took in a rather bashful Connor who'd been paying slightly more attention to what Abby was doing with Becker than what Lester had been asking.

“Subtlety, young man, is a dying art.”

Connor frowned but before he could ask what Lester meant, Lester turned around and went back into the house with Jenny. 

“You should just ask her out,” Jess said, even as she bent her head back down to make adjustments to the equipment. It wasn't her most elegant work but she supposed in this case practicality was much more important than appearances.

“Ask who out?”

Jess shook her head to herself and ignored the question. “Pass me that wrench, will you?”

Connor dug into the tool box and found what he was looking for. He lifted it and was about to hand it to Jess when it was suddenly pulled straight out of his hands. 

“Wrench, Connor,” Jess said again before looking up to see that Connor was staring open mouthed behind her. Carefully she turned around as the lights pulsated into being. 

“We're not ready,” Jess said, pulling at Connor's sleeve when he didn't seem to be paying attention. “We're not ready.”

“Right, I'll -" He motioned vaguely towards the zoo. If their idea of a locking device was truly going to work then there had to be devices at each location identified on the map for where a light was going to appear. The zoo was the last one that needed putting into place. 

“Don't go alone,” Jess reminded him as he started to jog away. He slowed, looking around for where Becker and Abby had gone but they seemed to have disappeared. 

“I'll be fine,” he decided and carried on at a faster pace. 

“Connor, wait!” Jess shouted, but he didn't stop or turn around. 

Scared but trying not to show it Jess finished making the final adjustments on her device. From here she'd be able to see when all the others powered up and hopefully, if she'd interpreted the age old instructions correctly the lights would be forced to remain where they were, open but not allowing anything through. 

She stood up and turned around so she was now facing the light. She had a rifle near at hand and she resisted the temptation to pick it up – she didn't want to spook herself into shooting something that shouldn't be shot. Just as she thought this the younger policeman, Stephen, came tumbling through the lights closely followed by some sort of wild cat. Jess reached for her gun and aimed just as another cat came flying and tumbling through the anomaly and she had to steady her nerves and remember not to shoot anything that looked human shaped. 

The light pulsed even brighter, almost blinding and Jess took a nervous step backwards as the second creature padded around Stephen who was lying preternaturally still.

“Don't. Move,” Becker instructed from the door of the house.

Jess tried to keep her breathing slow and steady, her gun raised and aimed at the creature's body. She heard Becker slowly stepping onto the grass and could tell the exact moment that the cat decided it was going to pounce from the flicker in its eyes. 

“I've got it,” Becker said to her seconds before pulling the trigger as the cat leapt over Stephen's limp form. A perfect shot and the cat fell dead, lying next to Stephen. The second shot took out the other cat before it had a chance to move. 

Jess chanced a look back at the house. Becker slowly moved forward to check they really were dead while Lester and Jenny stood frozen in the doorway. 

“Is he...?” Jenny called out. 

Becker moved to check Stephen's pulse and Jess moved quickly to cover the anomaly with her gun in case anything else decided to come through. 

“Alive, just,” Becker told them. “We need to get him inside.” He turned back to Jess, saw her stance and nodded approvingly. “Where's Connor?”

“Oh god, he went to the zoo,” Jess said. 

“Fu-sugar,” Becker muttered under his breath. “Can you get the device locked?” 

Jess nodded. “It's ready, as long as Connor's sorted his end.”

The light flickered and they both braced themselves, but nothing else came through. 

“Ryan is still on the other side,” Lester pointed out, coming to stand next to the device. 

Becker stood up. “I could -”

Two gun shots in quick succession echoed around them and all but Becker jumped. 

“Was that...?”

“The zoo,” Becker confirmed. He looked between the anomaly and the zoo but there was no option really, Connor needed his help more than an ex-army policeman. “Anything that isn't human...”

Jess nodded. 

“I'm coming with you,” Abby said. She handed over a first aid kit to Jenny who took it over to Stephen's inert form and started to get him to wake up. She hefted another kit in her hand and looked determinedly at Becker waiting for him to argue only for him to reload his weapon and motion for her to follow him. 

“How is he?” Lester asked, crouching down next to Stephen. 

“His breathing is pretty shallow but his pulse is strong. I think we have to risk moving him.”

Lester reluctantly agreed but he didn't want to leave Jess on her own. “I can get the servants to help,” he started to suggest, but the anomaly flared and its light seemed to cascade over them and they had to cover their eyes as the light grew almost brighter than they could handle. 

“I don't think we have time for that,” Jenny said. “We only need to get him inside the door.”

“I'll be fine,” Jess said, trying to sound as confident as she felt afraid. 

Lester sighed and started lifting Stephen up by the shoulder, Jenny hurrying around to lift his legs, forcing her to move some of the dead cat out of the way. She really hoped they weren't about to see any more of those things – their teeth looked horrendous. 

They were half-way to the house when the light blazed again and there was a shout. Lester, who had his back to the light tried to twist around to see what was happening without dropping Stephen. Jenny had been walking backwards and had been concentrating on not falling over so wasn't really looking at the anomaly but once she did she realised that Jess was no longer anywhere to be seen. 

* * * * * 

Connor had run at full pelt to the zoo and had to stop for a moment, leaning his head against the door. He wasn't really made for running, especially not when carrying a heavy piece of equipment, the final component to the locking device. All he had to do was slot it in place and they'd be able to do what Lester's ancestor hadn't managed and cut the anomalies off for good. 

He hoped. 

Abby had given them all spare keys to the zoo entrance so he fished it out of his waistcoat and turned it in the lock. He was just stepping through when he saw a man he recognised as one of Becker's security team turning around a corner. 

“Hey!” he called out. “I need some help.”

He'd heard whispered complaints from some of the house about the guards before, and more outright condemnation from some of the servants, but he'd always thought they were exaggerating, until the guard turned around and fired twice straight at him. If he hadn't already been half-way to tripping over his own feet he might have been killed but instead he found himself sprawling face down on the ground as the bullets zinged somewhere over his head. 

He closed his eyes and kept his face smashed into the dirt, trying to look as dead as possible. He could feel a wet stinging on his forehead and presumed he'd done himself some real damage, which normally would be cause for concern but in the present circumstances he was hoping that head wounds really did bleed as much as people said they did. 

“We need to move,” a gravelly voice called from the end of the corridor. “Leave 'im.”

There was a monosyllabic grunt in response and then the dirt near his head was kicked up as the guard hurried after his companion. 

Connor breathed a sigh of relief and wondered what would happen if he just stayed there, like this, lying face down in the dirt for the rest of his life. But even as he thought it he knew he'd do no such thing. He still needed to finish work on the locking device and he was really curious both by where the guards had been hiding out all this time, and what they were now up to. 

He risked a glance at the end of the corridor and when he was confident that no one was there he hefted himself up. He pressed a finger to his forehead and could feel a gash running along the top, his fingers coming away coated in fresh red blood. He swallowed down his queasiness by wondering if Abby liked men with scars and then took a few seconds to lean against the wall, willing his legs to move. 

Eventually they did, almost as if he were in full command of them again, and he moved to the end of the corridor, peering around the corner. Two rights, one left and then straight on were the instructions Abby had given him about where to place the device which was all well and good but he had the nasty suspicion that the guards had had the same instructions and if they wanted to stop him locking the anomaly, well there wasn't going to be much he could do to stop them. Or anyone to tell that he'd tried either, he thought glumly. 

He squeaked and almost jumped out of his skin as a hand grabbed his arm and then another hand wrapped around his mouth. 

“Shh,” Abby said. “Are you all right?”

Connor breathed in relief all over Abby's hand and turned his head towards her as she took her hand away. She gently moved her fingers through his hair and across the cut on his forehead. 

“We don't have time for this,” Becker said, not unkindly. Connor realised that it was Becker's hand that had grabbed him and he winced a little as Becker released his grip. “Who was shooting at you?”

“Um, well, um....one of your men.”

Becker couldn't have looked more shocked than if Martians had come stumbling through the anomaly. “My...? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. I recognised him from the first time Helen went missing. They were looking for her in the library.”

“They're not supposed to be inside the building,” Becker said before falling silent. “I wonder if this has anything to do with the notebook missing from the library? We assumed Helen took it but, if she really did have my men working for her...” Becker looked very much like he wanted to punch something and Connor was looking forward to watching it. 

“Are you all right to carry on?” Abby asked. Connor tried to look brave as he nodded, and then realised that he was standing closer to Abby than he had ever stood before, closer to any girl he'd ever stood next to in fact. If Abby noticed, she didn't say anything, which made Connor suddenly feel even more nervous. 

“This way. Stay close,” Becker instructed and he started to move off towards the anomaly site. 

They'd got no further than the second right when one of Becker's guards pounced and punched Becker on the jaw. It was a blow that would have flattened Connor all together but Becker rolled with it and was fighting back before Connor realised what was happening. Abby grabbed him by the hand and pulled him out of harm's way as Becker and the guard started to fight in earnest. 

“We need to get round, come on, there's a shortcut.”

Connor was being dragged along before he really knew which way was up but he trusted Abby and went willingly through feeding pens of tigers and a little pool of penguins and then into what had been the lemur enclosure where the anomaly was shining brightly. They approached cautiously but there didn't seem to be anyone else around and the locking device was securely planted where Jess and Connor had left it earlier, save for the missing section that Connor carefully brought out of his pocket where he'd wrapped it up in one of Cutter's oft forgotten handkerchiefs. 

Abby locked them in and removed one of the knives from her utility belt as Connor set to work. 

“What happens now?” she asked. 

“I press this and as long as Jess has done her bit...” Connor pressed the button and grinned expectantly. His grin slowly started to fade as nothing happened, and continued not to happen as he and Abby exchanged increasingly worried looks. 

“What's happened to Jess?” Abby asked but Connor could only stare back blankly in response.

* * * * *

“Get. Off. You. Bloody. Extinct. Animal,” Ryan growled. He'd managed to get Stephen to safety but just as he'd been about to throw himself through he'd been pulled back by some great big cat with teeth like talons that had latched on to his foot and wouldn't let go, no matter what Ryan tried to do. He could hear the rest of the pack approaching and knew that he didn't have much time to get free, only his gun had fallen just out of reach and his vision had started to swim. 

He was sure he'd been in tougher spots but right now he couldn't recall a single one. What he did keep thinking about was whether he'd been reading the signals with Lester right, because if he hadn't it was going to not only be embarrassing but probably the end of his career too. 

“Take that,” someone shouted above him and as he twisted and kicked he saw Jess smashing a rifle against the cat's head, breaking its grip on his foot. Jess took a few hurried steps backwards as Ryan jumped to his feet, slightly off balance, and grabbed the rifle from her, smashing it against the cat's teeth, sending it reeling in the direction of its pack who looked around in confusion before padding towards them at a slower pace than before. 

“Go, go, go,” Ryan said, pushing Jess through the anomaly and making sure that this time he followed. 

There was confusion on the other side, Jenny, Lester and now Cutter rallying around the servants, trying to organise themselves into a search party. 

“Jess!” Lester called and pulled her into the tightest hug she'd ever received. 

“Lock it, now!” Jenny shouted as the light started to pulse. 

Cutter threw himself at the device and hit the button on top as Ryan readied Jess' rifle to shoot whatever might come through. 

They were all expecting some sort of noise or commotion to show that the device had worked but instead all was silent as the anomaly stopped spinning and stood, suspended in time. The cat that had been on its way through made the only sound as its front half landed with a squelch on the grass in front of them, perfectly sliced through the middle.


	10. Chapter 10

Ryan sank down under the water, the heat doing a good job of easing the tension in his aching muscles; he didn't think he'd ever spent time in a bath this luxurious before. When he raised his head up again he realised that he was no longer alone but as Lester had insisted that Ryan use his own personal facilities, he had a good idea who was hovering by the door. 

“I – I brought you a towel,” Lester said, stepping into the room and putting the towel down on one of the chairs before hesitatingly sitting down in the other one. “How do you feel?”

“Better, thank you,” Ryan said. If truth be told he felt a little drunk now that the adrenaline had worn off, the anomalies were locked and Stephen had woken up. And there was a reason why he never got drunk on duty because it lead him to do reckless things like move his hand down his body, aware that Lester was watching every movement. 

“Well, I'll leave you to it,” Lester said, standing up abruptly and knocking over the chair. He hesitated, looked as if he was about to pick up the chair and then decided to leave it. But Ryan had seen enough to know that his interest was definitely returned, and once he was a little more himself he'd figure out a way to make sure they both got what they wanted. 

* * * * *

Stephen was lying on the bed in what he had at first thought was a guest bedroom but which, once he had a chance to look at the photographs that lined the walls had realised must actually be Jess' own bedroom. He hadn't actually had much of an opportunity to talk to her while he'd been at the house and he was rather ashamed of himself that he'd been on his way to dismissing her as just Lester's ward until he realised just how clever and brave she was. 

“I brought tea,” Jess said, coming into the room carrying a tray and stepping neatly over bits of wire and pliers that littered the floor. 

“That sounds lovely,” Stephen said, sitting up. Someone, and he rather hoped that hadn't been Jess, had put him in some fresh clothes, and he was feeling remarkably better considering the way his emotions had been wrung out of him in the past twenty-four hours. 

“There are freshly made biscuits too,” she said with a smile, handing over a plate. “Cook bakes when she's worried so we'll be sending you and Ryan off with a whole boxful.”

Stephen returned the smile and took a couple of the offered biscuits, realising with a surprise just how hungry he now was. 

“There's proper food on the way too,” she said, turning away so he wouldn't realise she'd heard his stomach rumbling. 

“You don't have to look after me like this,” Stephen said. “You've been through a lot too.”

Jess poured out the teas and brought the tea cups closer to rest on the bedside table as she sat, carefully, on the bed next to him. 

“I know. But....there aren't really that many people who've seen what we've seen, are there? I know I wasn't over there very long but...”

“It gets inside you, somehow, doesn't it?”

Jess nodded, pleased that he understood. “Do you think that's what happened to Helen Cutter? That she became so obsessed with it because it's...”

“The most amazing thing to ever happen?” Stephen supplied, only half-facetiously. “Maybe. I remember, once, she told me that her father had said that one day her ambition would get her killed. I think everything she's ever done has been to prove him wrong. But all she's ended up doing is proving him right.”

Jess thoughtfully stirred sugar into her tea and waited to see if there was more but Stephen lapsed into a not uncomfortable silence and Jess was content just to sit and finish her tea. There weren't many people that didn't feel the need to talk just for the sake of hearing their own voice. She was glad that Stephen was one of them. 

* * * * *

Cutter was nursing a large whiskey in the dining room, paying little attention to anything that was happening around him except that dull awareness that servants were at their work tidying up the mess that he should be tidying up himself. 

He knew that Danny was sitting at the head of the table, in what he assumed would normally be Lester's spot, scribbling away at his damned little notebook as if his life depended on it. Which he supposed it might, all things considered. 

“I hope you're not thinking of publishing that,” Jenny said. She'd slipped into the room so quietly that Cutter hadn't noticed and his hand shook as he jumped slightly, spilling some drink onto the table and floor. A servant was wiping it down before Cutter had the chance to get out a handkerchief to do the same. 

Danny looked up and grinned. “As a work of fiction, maybe. No one's going to believe this is journalism.”

Jenny didn't look happy about that either but all she did was pluck Cutter's glass straight out of his hand and replace it with a mug of strong looking tea. 

“Breakfast will be served in the breakfast room shortly,” she said, before turning around and leaving. 

Cutter looked morosely at the tea and then over at Danny, whose smile he was really rather growing to hate. But since all Danny did was raise an eyebrow Cutter was left with no option but to drink down his tea like a good little boy. The fact that it was perfectly made and exactly as he liked it was just rubbing more salt in the wound. 

Then Danny started to chuckle to himself and Cutter found himself laughing along too. Maybe Danny Quinn wasn't so bad after all. 

* * * * *

“Still beautiful even with hardly any sleep,” Becker said, pulling Jenny into the parlour next to the kitchen. 

“Hilary,” Jenny said, trying not to smile, “behave.”

Becker mock pouted and Jenny relented to press a quick kiss against his lips, laughing as she stepped out of his arms and he let her go. 

“I have to check on the anomalies,” Becker said, rubbing absently at the bruise on his jaw. “When's breakfast?”

“Half an hour,” Jenny said, aware that there was no need for her to be smiling so much that her cheeks were hurting but unwilling to do anything about it. 

“I won't be late,” Becker said, eyes dark and promising and Jenny shooed him out of the room before she did something she'd very much like to do again and again. 

* * * * *

“How are you feeling?”

Connor shifted in his seat. They'd sent some servants out to get a doctor at first light but Havers the butler had done a careful examination himself and declared that Connor would live and that he probably wouldn't have a permanent scar. Connor had tried valiantly to keep his disappointment to himself but he wasn't sure he was all that successful. 

“Better, thanks,” he answered after a moment. 

Abby looked around the room, looking at anything in fact that wasn't Connor. They were in the second best guest room which had been decorated by Christine Lester and never really undecorated which explained the somewhat garish clash of colours and fabrics. Abby had always thought if she didn't have a headache on coming into the room she certainly would upon leaving it. 

“Good, that's good,” she said, examining the floor. “I'm glad.”

“Thanks,” Connor said, then blushed at himself, not really sure what he was thanking her for and if thanks were even necessary at the moment. 

“Breakfast will be served soon. Are you going to come down?”

“Yeah, yeah, I think I will,” Connor said. 

“Good. That's good.”

They sat in awkward silence for a moment until Abby started to get up and Connor tried to speak at the same time. 

“Um I was just - “

“I'm going to head down-”

They stopped, stared at each other and then Abby gave a brief smile and motioned towards the door which she hurried out of. 

Connor sank back, stared up at the ceiling and sighed the sigh of the long-suffering romantic. Maybe Inspector Ryan could give him some tips about how to talk to women, he seemed to have no problem making everyone like him. 

* * * * *

Breakfast was served relatively promptly at 8.30am. Everyone was slightly frayed and running on empty by then, but awake enough to appreciate the spread the servants had put on and Lester had insisted they too sit down and eat with them which Ryan got the impression was the only time such an event had occurred. He was never one for servants himself but he appreciated that Lester seemed to treat them like human beings and not fancy trinkets like some of the officers he'd served under. 

Bacon, sausages, eggs, tomatoes, beans and toast were just what Ryan was in need of after his relaxing bath which had been slightly too stimulating in some areas. Washed down with several cups of tea he resisted the urge to pat his stomach but he did push his chair slightly away from the table as he finished and stretched his legs. And if those legs brushed up against Lester's well, no one else need know anything about it. 

“I know this isn't exactly champagne,” Lester said, motioning towards the teapot in the middle of the table, “and the police investigation into Helen Cutter's activities aren't exactly concluded yet.” He nodded towards Ryan and Stephen. “But I would like to propose a toast. We have faced harrowing odds over the past few days and we each, every one,” here he nodded towards the servants, “have played their part. We may not have come out of this completely unscathed,” here he nodded towards Connor, “but we are stronger for it.” He stopped and raised his tea cup and the others did the same. “The brave actions of a few have prevented a potential loss of life that is unimaginable. To those that step up when they are needed, and to the friends they make along the way.”

“To friends, new and old,” Jenny said. 

“Friends new and old,” the others repeated. 

The servants moved off a few minutes later, taking dirty plates with them even though Jess and Jenny tried to help and told them it could wait. But they wanted to get back to their routines and Ryan couldn't blame them, he didn't really remember what an ordinary day looked like any more. 

“What exactly will your investigation conclude?” Cutter asked Ryan once the servants had filed out of the room. 

Ryan considered his answer carefully. “We may have to declare it death by misadventure, if only unofficially. I need to talk to the Commissioner in person and decide how he wants this recording in the paperwork.”

Cutter seemed satisfied with the answer and helped himself to another slice of toast. 

“What about her connection with the guards?” Jenny asked. “Do we know what they were up to last night?”

“The couple I've got locked up in the shed aren't talking,” Becker said. He looked over at Ryan. “At least not to me.”

“I'll threaten them with the long arm of the law later,” Ryan promised. “I think we can safely presume they were heading to meet Helen Cutter when Connor here interrupted them. For what end, well, I'm afraid we may never know.”

“So we're to assume that she really is dead?” Cutter asked. 

“I think that's the most logical course of action at the moment, Professor. Though if you ever hear different...”

“I'll be in touch,” Cutter agreed. “Of course, we still have to decide what to do with the anomalies They can't stay like they are indefinitely.”

“Indeed,” Lester agreed, “they're hardly fitting with the general ambience of my gardens.”

Danny snorted softly to himself and, Ryan noted, had his notebook open on his lap. He added having a stern word with the other man to his increasing list of things to do. 

“I'm going to arrange for some of my old regiment to stand guard,” Becker explained, “until we can come up with a better solution.”

“It's probably possible,” Jess began, almost to herself, “to create some sort of dampening field so that they're at least less visible than at the moment. And since we've got most of Old Man Chronos' notes Connor and I can probably fashion something to track their opening and closing rate...”

“We'd need some supplies from the university,” Connor suggested, leaning forward enthusiastically, “and we can test the strength of that electromagnetism – we lost a wrench that way yesterday. If we....”

“All right, thank you,” Lester interrupted. “I barely understand Jess' experiments on a good day. If it helps Mr Temple is welcome to stay here as long as he needs.”

Connor looked up, blushing and nervous. It did make sense especially since his own flat was unwelcoming at the best of times but it would mean being away from Cutter. 

“It's fine,” Cutter said, having quickly discerned what was troubling the young man. “I'll be fine. You have important work to do.”

“The offer extends to you as well, Nick. There's a room here if you need it.”

“Oh, well, thank you. That's very generous of you.”

“That's settled then,” Jenny said, starting to stand up. “And we still have the morning post to attend to.”

Lester groaned and started to follow her up. 

“Um, actually,” Abby said, raising her hand a little to get everyone's attention. “Stephen and I have something to say.”

Ryan shifted in his seat, concerned. 

“I was going to ask if I could have a few weeks off,” Stephen explained, looking at Ryan and no one else. “I want to go to Borneo. See if I can find out any information about my parents. I know, I know it's a long shot and I might not find anything at all, but I have to try, at least once.”

“And I've said I'll go with him,” Abby said. “I've done some research into the animal life there and it would be amazing to see it in person. I'll make sure the zoo has proper cover, of course,” she added, looking over at Lester. 

Lester in turn looked at Ryan and after a silent communication between the two Ryan turned back to Stephen and Abby. 

“If you're sure about this, Stephen, then of course you can have the time off. I'll square it with the Commissioner.”

“I know some people that were stationed in the area,” Becker told them, “I could get them to give you a run down of the country before you head out?”

“That would be really helpful, thank you.”

“We'll be staying in separate beds,” Abby whispered to Connor who was sitting next to her and looking glumly into his empty tea cup. “If that's what you were thinking about.”

“No, I mean, what?” Connor asked, not at all convincingly. Abby just rolled her eyes and watched as Stephen had a similar conversation with Jess who was doing a much more convincing job at appearing uninterested in anybody's sleeping arrangements.

“Well, then,” Lester said, “it seems like we all have something to keep us busy for the next month at least. Best get to it.”

“Not too busy, I hope,” Ryan said, low enough for only Lester to hear. Lester nearly knocked over his cup but caught it just in time and proceeded out of the room as if nothing had happened at all. Ryan just smiled. He hadn't been looking forward to coming here again, but now he found he was reluctant to leave. 

He didn't suppose Lester minded. 

* * * * * 

Deep in the Forest of Dean, where no lights from Lester's house could reach between the towering trees a hooded figure crept slowly amongst the leaves and roots. They checked their watch, twice, and on the third glance an anomaly with a faint light opened just long enough for the figure to step through and then it closed almost as if it had never been open at all.


End file.
